Many passenger vehicles now incorporate an integrated communication system, such as a Mobile Vehicle Communication Units (MVCU), providing a variety of fee-based subscription services in a mobile environment including navigational assistance. The MVCU is typically a vehicle telematics device including a cellular radio, satellite transceiver, and/or global positioning capabilities. Typically, a radio communication link is established between the MVCU and a call center through a wireless network.
Off board navigation (OBN) is a means of providing turn-by-turn directions with a navigation device that obtains a route from a remote source (i.e., transmitted to the MVCU from the call center via the wireless network). Routes are generated then transmitted as route guidance data to a navigation device. One form of route guidance data transmitted to a navigation device for off-board navigation is data derived from a digital map database. Off board navigation devices typically do not have a digital map database resident in the device due to its limited storage capacity. Consequently, the device may not have sufficient data downloaded to autonomously provide routing information with turn-by-turn directions to a stored destination location or point of interest, where a point of interest may be, for example, a hotel, bank, gas station, shopping mall, recreational facility and the like, known in the art. A point of interest becomes a destination location when a user desires to navigate to the point of interest. Additionally, a destination location may be a residence, which is typically not known in the art as a point of interest. Further, a user who would like to return to a destination location or point of interest cannot currently verify and store location information as a navigable destination location or point of interest, for which he can later retrieve turn-by-turn travel directions.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a method for storing and verifying destination locations for off-board navigation, and to overcome the deficiencies and obstacles described above.